Markless and Armless {A Regulus Black story}

chapter 3

"You need to stop being so paranoid." Evan Rosier instructed.
"It's hard to not be paranoid." Regulus snapped back. They were sitting in the great hall along with all of their friends it was breakfast the day of the first quidditch after the Christmas break.
"Nobody knows about your arm." Evan said reassuringly in a hushed whisper.
"Maybe I would feel a bit better about that if you guys stopped bringing it up every time I'm upset." Regulus hissed his voice filled with passive aggression.
"We're lucky most people in this school are endlessly self involved and aren't entertained by our not so subtle whispering." Dorcas added while buttering a piece of toast.
"We're lucky?" Regulus asked, feigning annoyance.
"Yes my dear Regulus because most of the students at this school are self involved gossips and if we took away the self involved part they would be bothering all of us." Dorcas said while pushing the plate that had the toast she had buttered over to Regulus.
"Fair enough. Where's Barty?" Regulus asked before taking a bite of the toast.
"He's trying to get the other beater excited for the match." Dorcas said while laughing.

At the beginning of the school year the only open spot on the Slytherin quidditch team was a beater. Now most of the older students didn't want to be a beater because Barty who was notoriously vicious was the other beater. Past beaters had got injured just practicing with Barty so it wasn't a particularly sought out position. This meant the only person who tried out for the position was a second year girl. This second year girl was quite shy and nervous and reminded Regulus' friends of him in second year though he didn't see it.

"How do you think we'll do captain?" Barty asked while moving back to his friends and sitting down.
"It's against gryffindor so if we make sure the keeper does his job, great." Dorcas said, giving a potent stare at Evan when she said keeper.
"I've been practicing! I just wish Pandora was on our team." Evan said sulkily.
"Pandora is in Ravenclaw." Regulus reminded him.
"I know and I tried to get professor flitwick and slughorn to agree to a trade between Pandora and Barty but they refused, sadly." Evan said while smirking at Barty.
"Hey!" Barty protested before throwing a pancake covered in syrup at Evan.
"Gross, I'll have to shower before the game now because you use an ungodly amount of sugar and syrup." Evan complained.
"Come on boys let's head down to the pitch now so we can make sure no one has pranked our stuff." Dorcas instructed.

No one knew how they did it but Sirius and his friends managed to prank the Slytherin changing rooms before every game between their two houses.
"The waters pink!" Evan shouted from the showers.
"Broom storage is filled with bubbles!" Barty yelled back from broom storage. It was up to Regulus to check the lockers. He put a simple shield spell up before flicking his wand to open all the lockers. A sticky looking green substance and bright yellow feathers came flying out of the lockers at such a speed that if Regulus didn't have his shield up he would have been splattered.
"Lockers were pranked!" Regulus added. He thought that the plan must have been for them to open their lockers get splattered go to the showers, get turned pink and finally after all that when they went to get their brooms get covered in bubbles. The two other boys came in to assess the damage but Evan suddenly sneezed.
"Oh come on I'm allergic to these feathers! You have to be kidding me." He complained as Barty laughed.

By the time they actually got everything cleaned up and got ready it was time for the match to start. The other boy on the Slytherin time arrived at the usual time and was none the wiser to the pranks that had been cleaned up. And as per usual the girls changing rooms hadn't been pranked. Sirius and his friends certainly operated on a weird code of honour.

When they walked out Regulus made sure to look down and not make eye contact with the other team. He didn't want to look at Sirius or his insufferable friend James who was the gryffindor quidditch captain.
"Captains shake hands." Madame Houch instructed. Dorcas and James walked up to each other and obediently did so. James smirked while Dorcas kept a straight professional face. Then the whistle was blown and everyone flew up.

The air felt refreshing for Regulus it's familiar feeling never bothered him. He was on the search for the snitch as the seeker. The main thing to look out for when playing gryffindor was the chasers, they tried to rank up as many points as possible so even if the other team caught the snitch they would still win. They had won many games using this strategy, this strategy also allowed James Potter lots of glory which he loved. This meant Regulus was determined to find the snitch as quickly as possible.

"Another score from gryffindor chaser James Potter! Slytherin has possession of the quffale a fabulous pass from Amycus Carrow to Dorcas Meadows, she shoots she scores! Wow both keepers seem to be taking the day off." The commenter Emmeline Vance announced. Regulus found Emmeline's comments to be impartial but also distracting, especially when she commented on how stationary he was.
"Both seekers seem to be having no luck with Regulus Black not even circling the pitch-"
Regulus shook his head, he couldn't get distracted, he had to focus on the snitch.
There it was, he could see it's golden glittering. He shot down, eagle eyeing it. The gryffindor seeker immediately saw what he was looking at and began to zoom for it.

There was a positive for Regulus though, the snitch was heading away from the other seeker and in his direction. He pushed forwards and swerved slightly tired the side, to anyone watching them it looked like they would crash head on. The gryffindor seeker reached her arm out forwards and Regulus reached his to the side. He quickly grabbed it and moved his hand away to avoid hitting the seeker in the face. He had caught the snitch. He held it up in the air and the Slytherin's cheered. The whistle was blown and everyone landed on the ground.

"You did it just in time Regulus, Gryffindor was just about to score another goal that would have made them win even if you caught the snitch but you did it we won!" Dorcas cheered. Evan and Barty put Regulus on their shoulders and gave him a victory walk back to the changing rooms while Dorcas went to shake a sad James Potter's hand.